Palestinian youths found a number of sea turtles lying on the beach in the Gaza Strip after the waves threw them ashore.
One of those young men Motaz Ghalban found one of the dead turtles on the beach of Qarara near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip after the last weather depression that hit Gaza.
“I was surprised to see a huge turtle coming to the shore” Motaz told the PIC reporter.
Seeing such creatures was new for Motaz due to their scarcity in Gaza and the Israeli ban on Palestinian fishing in areas far away from the beach.
According to environmental experts the turtles found on the beach in the Gaza Strip are green turtles which are well-known worldwide for their tasty meat and eggs.
Sea turtles may migrate thousands of miles to reach breeding sites. After mating at sea adult female sea turtles return to land to lay their eggs.
Generally sea turtles are reptiles which live in the sea and adapted to its environment. There are eight types of sea turtles scattered across the world and they are: Loggerhead turtles Green turtles Softshell turtles Hawksbill turtles Kemp’s Ridley turtles Green turtles Flatback turtles and Black turtles; three types of these turtles live in the Mediterranean Sea.
Turtles spend most of their lives drenched in seas and oceans using their fins but they have to go back to the beach in order to lay eggs during the nesting season.
Furthermore sea turtles feed on vertebrates that live in the bottom of the sea such as crabs molluscs and other shellfish.
